Hey, Little Birdies!

Today is Feed the Birds Day—a wonderful day to participate in not just for the birds, but for yourself as well! Feeding birds can be a very educational experience, imparting scientific concepts built in to nature and giving us a better understanding of the importance in caring for our environment and the life that lives there. Ask your folks if they can help you feed the birds. Here are some things to consider:

A Balanced Bird Diet
Just the same way that your body requires you eat the right things in order for it to function its best, birds are no different. Birds stay healthy and energized by eating the right kind and the right amount of nutrients. But wild birds are all different. Some eat bugs, grubs and worms for their nutrition while others eat seeds and berries. In order to see what kind of birds enjoy what kind of food, put out a variety for them like seeds, nuts, berries, and suet (fat).

Tweeter Feeder
Different feeders will attract different birds. Bowl-style feeders provide an open shape that allows several birds to feed at once. It’s also an easy one for kids to refill as opposed to a tube-style feeder. Tube feeders take a little extra effort to fill up, however, you can usually get away with a refill once every several days or a week (depending on how much food fits in your feeder. Probably the easiest method yet is to simply get a suet cage and blocks of suet to put inside. Hang it up outside and you’re done.

Hit the Spot
Some locations are better than others for birdfeeders. It’s important that the feeder goes somewhere several feet away from shrubs where predators could be hiding. Birds also want to be either in or near a tree where they can take shelter. Be sure to pick a spot for your feeder where you’ll be able to see it from inside the house. You want to be able to enjoy watching all your new feathered friends! Perhaps you’ll want a pair of binoculars handy to really study these amazing little creatures!

So whether you want to devote a lot or just a little time to putting out some food for the birds in your yard, the birds will sure appreciate it and you’ll love it too. Have a great Feed the Birds Day and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans! Till next time.

- John

Hey, Winter Wonderers!

This isn’t our first time discussing the Winter Solstice. In the past we’ve learned about our ancestor’s reaction to this shortest day of the year as well as its connection to Christmas trees. Today we’re taking a deeper look at this yearly phenomenon. You can call the Solstice by a number of names: The Shortest Day, The Longest Night, Solstice Night, Midwinter, Yule…

We get the word ‘Solstice’ from two Latin words: ‘sol’ meaning sun, and ‘sistere’ which translates ‘to stand still’. We also have the Summer Solstice (the Longest Day) on the opposite end of the year. The Winter Solstice is when we see the sun reach its southern-most position and seemingly stand still.  Makes sense, right?

When to Celebrate
Unknown to most folks, the Winter Solstice isn’t actually a day. It’s shorter than that. It’s that single specific moment of time when the sun sits seemingly still at its southern-most spot above the Tropic of Capricorn. The Winter Solstice arrives at 10:59 a.m., Eastern Time today.

No Rush
You would think that the Solstice must have the earliest sunset, but that’s rarely the case. The earliest sunset is typically a few days before the solstice. The reason that the earliest sunset and the solstice don’t align is because of the different measurements of time: solar time (which is based on the sun’s position in the sky) and manmade time (our measurement of time using clocks).

Only a Little Chilly
With the least amount of daylight, one could figure the Winter Solstice to be the coldest day of the year. But despite there only being about nine hours of sunlight today, temperatures typically have a ways to go down in the coming few weeks as winter deepens.

We all turn the darkest day of the year into the brightest with our natural, festive cheer that’s radiating from all of us like a furnace this time of year. Stay warm on this Winter Solstice night and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Folks.

- John

Hey, Snail Mailers!

Writing letters is really in the spirit of summer camp, but it’s such an appropriate activity for right now in the winter season—a great time to flex your writing muscle and practice this therapeutic and cheerful indoor activity as we venture into the holiday season! Here are some great reasons to sit yourself down today and write a letter or two to some of the people you have in your life.

Process Events
Writing things down is an extremely useful means of people cementing events as they come to pass during the course of our lives. All of the people you meet, skills you learn, and things you do—it’s great to review all of those new experiences you’ve had to help yourself process and reflect on what you learned. Writing about your personal perspective can allow you to explore what you’re feeling.

Say What You Mean
Writing letters gives you an opportunity to write down your thoughts and express your feelings. We tend to feel more comfortable saying things to someone by means of written word that might go unsaid in other forms of communication such as talking face-to-face or texting.

Preserve Memories
Don’t leave your memories behind! Put them down on paper. Write about your school, home life, memories of summer camp, etc. Sharing fun memories is a great way to cherish a friendship or family relationship you have with the recipient of your letter! It’s always good to revisit a cool moment or an inside joke we may have shared with someone close in our life!

These are just a few of the many benefits there are to writing letters to people. Make the connection and spread some cheer as we venture into the holiday season! Put your pen to some paper and see what comes out! Happy Letter Writing Day and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Happy Hanukkah!

This evening will mark the last night of Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights—a widely celebrated Jewish holiday commemorating the defeat of the Seleucid Greek rulers of the land of Israel in the second century B.C.E by Hebrew soldiers, the Maccabees.

The eight days of Hanukkah are about a seven-day miracle in which the Maccabees only had enough oil to light their temple’s eternal flame for a single day, yet the lamp kept on burning for eight!

Let’s take a deeper look into some things you may not have known about this Hebrew holiday.

Biblical Hanukkah
The Tanach is pretty much the equivalent to the Christian Bible when it comes to the Jewish faith. But did you know that unlike any other Jewish holiday, the Tanach makes no mention of Hanukkah. No one knows why. Strangely enough, the Hanukkah story can be found in the Christian Bible but not the Jewish one.

Oil Have Something to Eat
As mentioned earlier, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle the Maccabees witnessed of the oil that burned for eight days. The importance of oil is honored throughout traditional Hanukkah recipes—all of which are fried in oil: Donuts, Latkes, Fried Fish, Fried Sweet Cake, Deep-Fried Pancakes packed with cheese.

Calendar like Clockwork
Hanukkah consistently falls on the same date every year: the 25^th of Kislev (a month of the Hebrew calendar). The Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar are very different, however, which is why Hanukkah comes at different dates between November and December. The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar, based on the sun and the moon while the our Gregorian calendar only considers the sun.

I hope you’ve all had a great Hanukkah celebration these last seven nights! Make tonight something special. Happy Hanukkah one last time and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Take a Hike Day

Happy Take a Hike Day, Everybody! Hiking does more than just keep your body tuned up and feeling good. It’s also good for your mind. Incorporating a beautiful trail that twists and turns and leads to new landscapes is a nice little treat for your eyes and eases your head. Most people live within a reasonable driving distance of cool trails just waiting to be discovered and explored by them!

And it’s really something remarkable that there are so many routes that have been established and groomed through wooded land and remote wilderness. In honor of today, I thought we could consider all the labor that goes into creating a woodsy trail.

Saw and Chain
Woods don’t grow with those winding carpets navigating through them. Somebody at some time came along and cut down any trees or other vegetation that couldn’t be easily wrapped around. Nowadays people do this job with a chainsaw which makes for a pretty strenuous job. But people did a job like this before gas-powered equipment existed to make it that much more manageable. That’s some back-breaking work.

Careful with that Axe
Once a path has been cleared, there will be plenty of brush roots and tree stumps to remove from the ground. Along with the chainsaw yet, this job can be achieved with a shovel and axe to create a clean pathway along the surface and just below—eliminating most, if not all, tripping hazards.

Rakin’ up is Hard to Do
While, at this point, all the big stuff has been removed, there’s still a good amount of work to be done to truly CLEAR the path. The sticks, viny vegetation, roots, rocks, woodchips, and whatever else there may be remaining all still needs to be raked off of the path. It doesn’t require the same kind of intensity as felling trees or stump and root removal, but it’s still a heck of a lot of work.

Like a Bridge over Swampy Water
Depending on the type of land you’re working with, there’s a possibility that you still have a lot of work ahead of you in order to make a traversable trail. If you have a wide enough stream or marshy land that you need to cross, a bridge must be built for reliable crossing.

It’s an astounding amount of work; like I said, it’s amazing that we have so many in national state parks and simple, local trails all over the place—sometimes in places you’d least expect, smack-dab in the middle of a bustling city. Enjoy discovering trails around you and appreciate all the effort that went in to making them possible. Happy National Take a Hike Day! As always, thanks for reading!

- John